New Delhi:
In what can be called a southern outreach for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, BSP chief Mayawati on Friday formed an alliance with superstar-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena. Making the announcement about the alliance in Lucknow, Pawan said that, “We would like to see Behen ji Mayawati ji as the Prime Minister of our country, this is our wish and our ardent desire.” The BSP chief also reciprocated and said that BSP wishes Pawan to be next Andhra Chief Minister. A day before on Thursday, Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena released the first list of contestants for four of the 25 Lok Sabha and 32 of the 175 assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh.
Pawan will contest from the Gajuwaka Assembly seat of Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh in the upcoming Assembly elections and not from Anantapuram as was announced earlier. Gajuwaka was once a stronghold of the Praja Rajyam Party and so party workers insisted that the popular face must fight the polls there. He is also said to be popular with the youth there.
Meanwhile, Mayawati is leant to have given final touches to the list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections and discussed other important electoral issues at a party meeting. The BSP president held a meeting with important district and division-level leaders in Uttar Pradesh, a party release issued here said.
According to it, names of party candidates and other important electoral and political issues were discussed at the meeting. The decisions taken at the meeting will be carried forward after discussions with the top leadership of alliance partner Samajwadi Party (SP), the release said.
According to the feedback received during the meeting, the appeals of BSP and SP leaders have had a good impact on the people, it said. Workers of all the three parties in the alliance, including the Rashtriya Lok Dal, have gotten into election mode, setting aside their differences.
After taking the feedback, Mayawati directed her party men to ensure strict compliance with the model code of conduct. She also directed BSP workers to ensure that birth anniversaries of party ideologues Kanshi Ram and Bhimrao Ambedkar on March 15 and April 14 respectively are observed in accordance with the poll code.
